Online advertising has become ubiquitous. In conventional online advertising, advertisements are distributed via the Internet and World Wide Web. Examples of online advertising include advertisements that accompany web page search results, banner advertisements on web pages, online classified websites, email marketing, and spam.
Building and playing with models online is becoming increasingly popular among various users. Internet-based virtual worlds are simulated, enabling users to travel within a virtual world, play games within the virtual world, and interact with other inhabitants (i.e., other users) of the virtual world. Some virtual world environments include advertisements for real world companies, as well as virtual companies.
One example of advertising in a virtual environment is found in the video game GRAND THEFT AUTO™. Users in the game drive around a virtual city and may use a virtual radio to hear songs during a game. The songs are advertisements to prompt game players to buy the songs. Furthermore, as users navigate through the game, billboards are displayed which include advertisements (similar to traditional physical billboards). However, both the songs played on the virtual radio and billboards displayed in the gaming environment, are simply hardcoded into the game in advance of runtime.